
Colonel Waring 


ISTORY 



















LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, 

Cliap..AWpyright No._ 

Shelf. WaS f- 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 























COL. GEORGE E. WARING, JR 




LIFE OF 


COL. GEO. E. WARING, JR. 

THE GREATEST APOSTLE OF CLEANLINESS, 

AS TOLD BY 

DR. ALBERT SHAW 

* / 

EDITOR OF AMERICAN REVIEW OF REVIEWS, AND BY NEWSPAPER 
EDITORS AT THE TIME OF HIS DEATH 

AND 


A. D., 1997 


A PROPHECY 


COLONEL GEORGE E. WARING, JR. 


ISSUED BY 

THE PATRIOTIC LEAGUE 

ORGANIZED TO PROCLAIM THE NECES¬ 
SITY FOR SYSTEMATIC INSTRUCTION IN CITIZEN¬ 
SHIP IN THE SCHOOLS AND OUT OF THEM; TO CULTIVATE 
THE KNOWLEDGE OF AMERICAN PRINCIPLES, LAWS, HISTORY AND 
PROGRESS, AND TO INSTIL AMERICAN IDEAS INTO THE 
MINDS AND HEARTS OF AMERICANS, NATIVE AND 
ADOPTED, OF BOTH SEXES AND ALL AGES, 

SECTS AND PARTIES 



THE PATRIOTIC LEAGUE 

1899 





4354 

UR COUNTRY" SERIES 


PUBL1SHD BY 


THE PATRIOTIC LEAGUE 


, vA 


LITTLE CITIZEN, also called “ THE YOUNG CITIZEN,” by Charles F. 
ole, is in the form of questions and answers, for the same purpose as the 
“Citizen’s Catechism ” but written especially for young children. Its simplici¬ 
ty renders it no less attractive to children of the larger growth. Cloth, 35 cents. 


THE CITIZEN’S CATECHISM by Charles F. Dole, revised by many eminent social 
and political scientists, is designed to present in compact simple form the principle 
ideas of citizenship. State and City School Superintendents in every part of the 
country have written commendations of this book, and the opinion has been ex¬ 
pressed by several of them that ability to answer its questions intelligently should 
be a requisite to naturalization of foreigners. It has been adopted for use in the 
public schools of New York, Philadelphia, New Haven and other places. 

Paper, 10 cts., cloth, 35 cts. 

TALKS ON CITIZENSHIP, by Charles F. Dole follows the arrangement of topicsin 
the “ Citizen’s Catechism.” The two books can be used to advantage together or 
separately. Cloth, 50 cts. 


THE AMERICAN PATRIOT, by Charles F. Dole, discusses in the most simple and 
charming way the principles and right practices of citizenship. Cloth, 50 cts. 

OUTLINE OF AMERICAN GOVERNMENT, for teachers and pupils of high schools 
and lower grades, prepared especially for schools that adopt the Gill School City 
government, by Delos F. Wilcox, Ph.D. and Wilson L. Gill, LL.B. Cloth, 50 cts. 


MUNICIPAL AFFAIRS, by John R. Commons, is most instructive and entertaining 
about those features of the city concerning which it is the interest and duty of 
every man, woman and child to be familiar. Cloth, 5c cts. 


CITY PROBLEMS, by Delos F. Wilcox Ph. D., for grammar and high schools. 
Five chapters on Fresh Air, Light and Room for Play; The City’s Waste, Life, 
Property and Good Order; The City's Finances; The Citizen — His Rights and 


Duties. Cloth, 33 cts. 

AMERICAN IDEAS, by Thomas R, Slicer, a series of talks to young people on the 
principles of American citizenship. In press. 

WASHINGTON, abridged from Irving’s Life of Washington. Cloth 33 cts. 

FRANKLIN, by Henry M. Leipziger, Ph. D., from autobiography. ” 33 cts. 

JAY, by Wm. Jay Schieffelin, abridged from Life of Jay by Wm. Jay. ’* 33 cts. 

COLONEL WARING, sketches by Albert Shaw and others. ’ 35 cts. 


STORIES FOR LITTLE CITIZENS, by Bolton Hall, John R. Commons and Miss 
Jennie B. Merrill, Supervisor of New York public kindergartens, and others to 
convey lessons in citizenship to the “ wee ones,’ are full of delights. This is in 
course of preparation. 

OUR COUNTRY, monthly magazine of the Patriotic League, published at 
7 East 16th St., New York, ten months each year, is $2 yearly, sample copy 10 cts. 
sent free to active members of the Patriotic League. The above described 
books are published serially, and others will follow on law, biography, histo¬ 
ry and other matters pertaining to intelligent citizenship. 

THE PATRIOTIC LEAGUE is chartered to promote the cause of systematic instruc¬ 
tion in citizenship. Membership is open to all. It furnishes to active mem¬ 
bers through OUR COUNTRY free of charge, a three years’course of instruc¬ 
tion in citizenship. Active members pay annual dues $ 1.50, in chapters of 10 or 
more members, $ 1 each. Members of the Alpha Chapter pay $ 5 or more a year. 


•ECOND CO{$pyright, 1899, by the patriotic league 

f ?-/■*:> ■ 






o copies received. 




Colonel Waring’s work for the protection of human life 
and physical and moral health, through cleaning the cities, 
has been so successful and so vast', that he stands out as 
the great Hercules of modern times. It is peculiarly 
fitting that a brief account of the life and work of this 
hero should be given to those studying citizenship through 
lessons furnished by the Patriotic League. He was not 
only one of its officers and a member of the Alpha 
Chapter, but took an active part in the development of 
the “Gill School City.” In the latter he interested Hon. 
Wm. L. Strong, then Mayor of New York, now President 
of the Alpha Chapter, who brought him into greater 
prominence by making him Commissioner of Street 
Cleaning, with the specific direction and necessary power 
to clear the streets of obstructions and clean the City. 

This little book is one of a series designed by the 
Patriotic League to convey some ideas of practical patri¬ 
otism and to cultivate the spirit of helpful kindness. Such 
books alone, if perfectly adapted to their purpose and 
put into the hands of young people, may, now and then, 
prove to be good seed fallen on good ground. It is well, 
however, for those who wish to be a blessing to the young 
people to recognize the fact that boys and girls are glad 
to be led by older persons whom they respect, but, as a 
rule, they must have constant encouragement and lead¬ 
ing, and that simply putting good books into their hands 
will not alone accomplish what needs to be accomplished 
for every young person. 

The Patriotic League does not hope to see American 
citizenship rise to the plane of perfection simply by means 
of teaching the words or the thoughts contained in the 
precepts of morality, but by daily and constant train¬ 
ing of the children in the application of right principles 
to their actions, whether at play or work, in the school or 
wherever they may be. Necessary to such training is a 
successful presentation of right principles, to produce 
which has been the aim of the author of this book and of 
the Patriotic League Instructors. To aid in the training 
and practice of the principles of morality and good citi¬ 
zenship, the President of the Patriotic League has de¬ 
vised the “Gill School City,” which has proved to be use¬ 
ful for its purpose, and in conjunction with this the 
“School State” and “School Republic,’’ not for occasional 
diversion, but for constant use. 



4 


PREFA CE 


The series of “Our Country” Books of which this 
book is one, is issued under the authority of the following 
named men and women who are officers of 


THE PATRIOTIC LEAGUE 


Address all mail to P. O. Station O, N.Y. 

GENERAL OFFICERS 

WILSON L. GILL, Pres’t, JAMES T. WHITE, Sec'y, ALEXANDER M. HADDEN, Treas. 


COUNCIL: 


ABRAM S. HEWITT, Ex-Mayor of N. Y. O. O. HOWARD, Maj. Gen. U. S. A. 

EDWARD EVERETT HALE JAMES A. BEAVER. Ex-Gov. of Pa. 

DORMAN B. EATON, Ex U. S. Civil Service Commissioner 

HONORARY and ADVISORY BOARD: 


WM. McKINLEY, President of the U. S. 
GROVER CLEVELAND, Ex-President 
BENJAMIN HARRISON, Ex-President 
GEORGE DEWEY, Admiral, U. S. Navy 
LEONARD WOOD. Brig. Gen. U. S. A. 
THEODORE ROOSEVELT, Governor, N.Y 
SIMON GRATZ, Ex-Pres. Phila.Bd Pub Ed. 


JOSIAH STRONG, Pres. Social Service Lgue. 
WM. H. P. FAUNCE, Pres. Brown University 
ISIDOR STRAUS, Pres. Educational Alliance 
FRANCIS E. CLARK, Father of Chr. Endeav. 
W. S. RAINSFORD, D. D. 

. THOMAS McMILLAN, Paulist Father, 

Gen. T. J. MORGAN, Ex-lnd. Com. 


C. R. WOODRUFF, Sec., Natl. Munic. Lgue WM. A. GILES, Civic Federation, Chicago 
P. V. N. MYERS, Dean Univ. of Cin’ti MERRILL E. GATES, Ex-Pres Amherst Col 

T. M. BALLIET Supt. Schools, Springfield WALTER L. HERVY, City Exmnr N.Y. Schls 
HERBERT WELSH, Pres. Natl. Indian Rights Assn. Mrs. MARY LOWE DICKINSON 

ALICE M. BIRNEY, Pres. Nat’ I Congress of Mothers JOHN LEWIS CLARK 
LASALLE A. MAYNARD, JOHN W. HEGEMAN, RUFORD FRANKLIN, JACOB A. RIIS 
R. FULTON CUTTING, Pres. Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor 
WILLIAM L. STRONG, F.x-Mayor of N.Y., President of the Alpha Chapter, 

JOHN H. C. NEVIUS, Vice Pres. Alpha Chapter, Col. HENRY HERSCHELL ADAMS, 
ARTHUR GOADBY, Sec. and Treas. ” ” ROBERT S. MacARTHUR, D. D. 

WM. JAY SCHIEFFELIN,Ex-City Civil Serv.Com. Mrs. ESTHER HERRMAN, 

Gen. JOHN EATON, Ex-U.S.Com. of Eden, late Director of Public Instruction, Porto Rico 


LIFE MEMBERS: 

WILLIAM E. DODGE, GEORGE D. MACKAY, WILLIAM IVES WASHBURN, BERNARD 
CRONSON, Mrs. JOHN L. GILL, DANIEL B. WESSON, JOHN A. CASS, HENRY B. 
METCALF, JOHN J. McCOOK, Mrs. SAMUEL R. PERCY, Mrs. LOUIS L*. TODD. 

LEAGUE INSTRUCTORS: 

CHARLES F. DOLE, THOMAS R. SLICER, 

JAMES ALBERT WOODBURN, Indiana University 
JOHN R. COMMONS andJAMES H.HAMILTON, Syracuse University 
HENRY M. LEIPZIGER, Supervisor, Free Public Lectures, N. Y. Public Schools 
M. L. DE LUCE, University of Cincinnati, KATE B. SHERWOOD, 
ALBERT SHAW, Editor “ Review of Reviews” 

WM. C. ROBINSON, Yale College and Catholic University of America 
GEORGE W. KIRCHWEY, FRANCIS M. BURDICK and FRANK J. GOODNOW, 
Columbia Univ. DELOS F.WILCOX, MILO R.MALTBIE, Ed. “ Municipal Affairs” 


IN flEMORIAn : JOHN JAY, ELLIOT F. SHEPARD, GEO. E. WARING, JR. 
JOSEPH LAMB, SAMUEL FRANCiS SMITH. 









CONTENTS 


-.joe -- 

LIFE OF COLONEL GEORGE E. WARING- JR 

t Albert Shaw 

Col. Waring in San Diego. 8 

Water, Drainage and Transportation for Camps. 9 

Head of Commission to investigate Cuba’s Sanitary Con¬ 
dition. 10 

Cleanse the Fountain. n 

Cost of Drainage compaired with Results. 12 

Engineer, Farmer, Patriot. 12 

Waring System of Drainage in Memphis. 13 

Appointed Street Commissioner to clean New York. 14 

A Clean Metropolis. 15 

Cherish the Lesson of his Career. 16 

COLONEL WARING’S PLAN TO CLEAN HAVANA 

Synopsis of the Report that cost his Life 

Foul Pools and Dead Animals in the Streets. 18 

Shameful Domestic Conditions. 18 

Deadly Marshes. 19 

Water Supply Excellent. 19 

Awful Plague Spot. 19 

Worse than War. 20 

The Remedy. 20 

Cost of Remedy. 22 

Cost of Havanah’s Filth. 22 

LIFE AND DEATH OF COLONEL WARING 

New York Sun 23 

NEW YORK, A. D., 1997—A PROPHECY 
Hy Col. Geo. E. Waring. Jr. 

How will the People Live?. 36 

Engineering Problems—Water Supply—Sewage. 37 

No Horses or other Domestic Animals. 38 

Changes in People and Government. 39 

Pessimists. 39 

Public Education.. 39 

Popular will supplant Monarchical School Government. 40 

People will do their own Thinking. 41 

Not afraid of Tammany. 41 

Public Opinion. 42 

































THE PRINCIPLES OF AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP 

AS TAUGHT BY 


THE PATRIOTIC LEAGUE 


Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them. 


BELIEVE, In the principles of the Declaration of Independence—That all 
men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain in* 
alienable rights ; that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. 

We believe, That good character, helpful kindness, to all creatures and civic intel¬ 
ligence are the basis of true citizenship. 

We believe, That the public, in assuming the education of children, becomes 
responsible to them not only for physical, industrial, mental and moral cult¬ 
ure, but also for special training, to the end that they shall be most happy, 
useful and patriotic while children, and be intelligent and faithful citizens. 

We believe, That it is our duty to consecrate ourselves to the service of our country, 
to study the history and principles of our Government, to faithfully discharge all 
obligations ©f citizenship, to improve our laws and their administration, and to 
do all which may fulfil the ideal of the founders of our Republic—a government 
of the people, for the people and by the people, of equal rights for all and special 
privileges for none—and to the maintenance of such a government we mutually 
pledge to one another our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor. 

We believe, That we should endeavor to lead others to understand, accept and 
extend these principles, and to uphold and defend the institutions of our country. 


THE YOUNG CITIZEN’S PLEDGE 

I AM a CITIZEN of AMERICA and HEIR to all her Greatness and Renown. 

As the health and happiness of my body depends upon each muscle and nerve 
and drop of blood doing its work in its place, so the health and happiness of my 
country depends upon each citizen doing his work in his place. I will not fill any 
post, or pursue any business where I shall live upon my fellow-citizens without doing 
them useful service in return ; for I plainly see that this must bring suffering and 
want to some of us. 

As it is cowardly for a soldier to run away from the battle, so it is cowardly 
for any citizen not to contribute his share to the well-being of his country. America 
is my own dear land ; she nourishes me, and I will love her and do my duty to her, 
whose child, servant and civic soldier I am. 

I will do nothing to desecrate her soil or pollute her air, or to degrade her 
children, who are my brothers and sisters. I will try to make her cities beautiful 
and her citizens healthy and glad so that she may be a most desirable home for her 
children in days to come. 

I accept the Principles of the Patriotic League for my own and I will do the 
best I can to live and act by them every day. 



COL. GEORGE E. WARING, JR. 

Commissioner of Street Cleaning, New York City. 

COL GEORGE E. WARING, JR. 

By ALBERT SHAW 

Editor of “ The American Monthly Review of Reviews ” 

'TTHE practical reasons that have justified the expulsion 
of Spain from Cuba are too numerous to be sum¬ 
med up in a sentence or two. To begin with, America 
acknowledged some duties toward humanity at large; 
and the Cubans were in sore need of a helping hand. 
From our own point of view, moreover, we had a right 
to urge that bad administration in Cuba was a standing 
injury. The harmful effects of Spanish methods upon 
our commerce, though easy to demonstrate, might not 
have afforded a sufficient ground for our peremptory in- 












8 


COL. GEORGE E. WARING , JR. 

terference. Considerations of the public health, however, 
have always afforded us an ample reason for condemning 
and ending Spanish sovereignty in Cuba, at any time 
when it might seem to us advisable to execute judgment. 
It has been estimated that the loss of life and property in 
the United States occasioned by epidemics of yellow 
fever and other diseases directly traceable to Cuban sea¬ 
ports have been greater in the aggregate than all the cost 
of blood and treasure caused by the great Civil War. 
Scores of fearful visitations of infectious maladies have 
swept across our Gulf and Southern States, and many of 
these have penetrated the North—all by reason of the near¬ 
ness of the plague-infested harbor of Havana. This very 
season has witnessed yellow-fever panics, with their ac¬ 
companiment of “ shotgun quarantines,”in several of our 
Gulf States; and although happily the disease was of a 
mild type, and the loss of life not heavy, there were en¬ 
tailed a fearful loss of business and a most deplorable 
paralysis of all social and economic activities. 

While our Gulf States were thus convulsed with 
dread of the yellow fever specter the Spanish peace com¬ 
missioners at Paris were endeavoring to persuade the 
American peace commissioners that the United States 
ought to assume responsibility for the “Cuban debt.” A 
Cuban debt, in any true sense of the phrase, should have 
represented expenditure incurred for the benefit of Cuba. 

COLONEL WARING IN SAN DIEGO 

A great many years ago the town of San Diego, Cuba, 
employed Col. GeorgeE. Waring, Jr., to construct a trunk 
sewer system. Any indebtedness that may remain out¬ 
standing against that municipality for that particular 
piece of public work or any analogous undertaking, will 
assuredly be honored by the United States on behalf 
of the Cuban people and the citizens of the town in 
question. But it has not, in fact, been the policy of the 
Spanish authorities in Cuba to incur indebtedness for sani- 







COL. GEORGE E. WARING, JR. 


9 


tary and public improvements. The “ Cuban debt” has 
represented money borrowed for the subsistence and en¬ 
richment of an oppressive civil and military establishment 
in Cuba, that has been entitled to no more respect than 
the civil and military government of a Turkish province. 
If this much-discusssed “ Cuban debt ” had to any extent 
been incurred in the carrying out of sanitary reforms at 
Havana, particularly the construction of a proper drainage 
system for the city and harbor, the people of the 
United States would have consented very cheerfully to 
guarantee the financial obligation. It will be worth to 
the United States all that the war has cost in suffering 
and death, as well as in pecuniary out-lay. to be in the 
position to establish a regime of cleanliness in the Cuban 
seaports. 

WATER, DRAINAGE AND TRANSPORTATION FOR CAMPS 

With a discernment that cannot be too highly praised, 
President McKinley gave the governorship of Santiago to 
Brig.-Gen. Leonard Wood, whose equipment and skill 
as a physician and sanitary expert are equal at every 
point to his tried and proven qualities as soldier and ad¬ 
ministrator. Gen. Wood’s prompt measures of sanitary 
precaution saved the city of Santiago from a yellow- 
fever epidemic that was impending and seemingly inevi¬ 
table. President McKinley was determined that no time 
should be lost, upon our obtaining military control of 
Havana and the other ports at the west end of Cuba, in 
dealing, not only on temporary lines, but also upon the 
basis of permanent reconstruction, with the health con¬ 
ditions that have been so notoriously bad for many gen¬ 
erations. The most pressing task at the moment was to 
make sure of the conditions surrounding the troops that 
we were about to send to take the place of the retiring 
Spanish garrisons. To that end it was determined by 
the President and the War Department to send a com¬ 
mission of experts to select sites for camps, and to make 






10 


COL. GEORGE E. WARING , JR. 


recommendations touching the proper supply to those 
camps with water, means of drainage and transportation 
facilities. 

HEAD OF COMMISSION TO INVESTIGATE CUBA’S SANITARY 

CONDITION 

The members of this commission were experienced 
officers of the regular army, with the exception of one 
chosen from civil life. This exception was Col. George 
E. Waring, Jr., who was made chairman of the commis¬ 
sion, and who was charged not only with the duty of 
giving advice upon the location and health conditions of 
camping grounds, but also with the greater task of in¬ 
quiring into the sanitary conditions of Havana and other 
cities in the western part of Cuba. This was with a 
view to recommending on broad lines the best way to 
stamp out the breeding-places of pestilence. No better 
man than Colonel Waring could have been selected. He 
was appointed early in October and returned with an 
elaborate report before the end of the month. He had 
been in Cuba only two or three weeks, yet he had not 
performed a superficial errand. For he had in fact given 
to Cuba not two or three weeks merely, but the cumula¬ 
tive knowledge and experience of a lifetime. And, as it 
proved in the end, he gave his life itself. 

Colonel Waring’s death has made it even more 
certain than an added ten years to his life could have 
made it that the United States will radically renovate the 
port of Havana, and that yellow fever—as a clearly pre¬ 
ventable disease—will be exterminated from North Amer¬ 
ica. Thus, in his death, Colonel Waring will have ren¬ 
dered to his countrymen the crowning service of a long 
life of usefulness, and will have derived his chief title to 
fame from the part he was permitted to take in the noble 
task of emancipating Cuba. All the varied experiences 
of his life had preeminently fitted him for this brief mis¬ 
sion, with its successful, though tragic ending. 






COL . GEORGE E. WARING , JR. 


11 


The just appreciation of Colonel Waring’s mission 
has been almost unanimous, and the lesson of his life and 
death has profoundly impressed the community for good. 
Colonel Waring, being a patriot as well as our foremost 
sanitary engineer, did not wait to be sent against his 
own will and judgment upon a worthless errand. He 
gladly volunteered his services, and the President of the 
United States in accepting those services gave Colonel 
Waring the noblest opportunity of usefulness that had 
ever fallen to his lot. The mission to Cuba reflected 
honor and credit alike upon both men. 

CLEANSE THE FOUNTAIN 

Colonel Waring was familiar with the ancient injunc¬ 
tion to cleanse the fountain that the stream may be pure. 
He knew that in this world, whether one wished it or 
not he must have concern for his neighbor’s welfare, or 
must in the end share his neighbor’s misfortune. The 
very facts that Colonel Waring died of yellow fever in 
New York City (within a stone’s throw of the office of 
this magazine) and that the malady had not sufficiently 
developed when he reached the port of New York to 
cause his detention at Quarantine, are an illustration of 
the most direct sort that the health of New York is im¬ 
mediately concerned with the slum conditions of Havana, 
and that the short and easy way to protect a thousand 
American communities—not only from the actual inva¬ 
sion of vellow fever, but also from the dread of it which 
is almost as ruinous—is to drive straight at the source 
and cleanse Havana. 

It was certainly fitting on many accounts that 
Colonel Waring should have been chosen to recommend 
the plans 'for Havana’s sanitation. He had been greatly 
concerned in years past with the sewerage systems and 
sanitary arrangements of our own Southern cities, and 
had thus been conspicuously indentified with the work 
of American defense against the periodic invasions of 






12 


COL. GEORGE E. WARING, J R. __ 

West Indian yellow fever. He had constructed the 
drainage system of Memphis, Tenn., after the great 
yellow-fever scourge of 1878; he had also been a consulting 
engineer in the work of protecting New Orleans by means 
of sanitary appliances. Various other Southern towns 
and cities had employed his services or adopted his sys¬ 
tem. All these experiences had eminently fitted him to 
draw up the sanitary plan of campaign for a final as¬ 
sault on the great stronghold of the yellow-fever scourge 
—Havana itself. He had abundant help in his October 
mission, and lost no time in prosecuting his inquiries and 
formulating his conclusions. The subject had been much 
considered by others and there was a good deal of data on 
hand. Colonel Waring did not even wait until his arrival 
at New York to put his recommendations on paper. 
He had intended, it is true, to revise and expand his re¬ 
port, but the substance of it was already prepared for 
presentation to President McKinley when Colonel Waring 
reached New York on Tuesday, October 25. 

COST OF DRAINAGE COMPARED WITH RESULTS 

He had intended to give the document its finishing 
touches and carry it to Washington on Wednesday, but 
he found himself indisposed and consented to remain at 
home a day or two before going to the capital. He died 
on the following Saturday morning. His report survives 
him and will unquestionably command great deference at 
Washington. The drainage improvements recommend¬ 
ed by Colonel Waring for the port of Havana will cost 
several millions of dollars, and will be worth in the course 
of the next few decades several hundred millions in the 
protection they will afford to the United Sta f not to 
mention the protection to Cuba itself. 

ENGINEER, FARMER, PATRIOT 

Colonel Waring, like Colonel Roosevelt, General 
Wood, Admiral Dewey, and others who might be men- 






COL . GEOR GE E. WARING, JR. 


13 


tioned among those who have recently served the Gov¬ 
ernment, was a living refutation of the calumny which 
declares that we Americans have neither the men nor the 
capacity for efficient public administration. He had done 
excellent public work at various posts during more than 
forty years. He was born in the State of New York in 
1833, became interested at an early age in agricultural 
chemistry and kindred subjects, and began his life-work 
in the ^o’s as a lecturer upon scientific farming and an 
agricultural manager and engineer. For a while he was 
the managing partner on Horace Greeley’s famous farm 
at Chappaqua. Shortly afterward he became associated 
with Frederick Law Olmstead, who gave him the import¬ 
ant work of grading, draining and planting Central Park. 
This notable undertaking for the permanent pleasure, 
health and pride of New York occupied him until the 
outbreak of the Civil War. He was one of the volunteers 
of 1861, and after a few months became a colonel of 
Missouri cavalry. He served through the war with de- 
stinction and valor, and after a year or two of varied ex¬ 
perience took the management of the Ogden farm at 
Newport, R. I., where he remained for some ten years, 
gaining experience, knowledge, and reputation as a 
scientific authority upon everything that could pertain to 
the management of landed property, together with the 
raising of fine stock, agricultural chemistry, and scientific 
drainage, both agricultural and sanitary, and where he 
also wrote some charming books that showed first-class 
literary qualifications. 

WARING SYSTEM OF DRAINAGE IN MEMPHIS 

It was about twenty years ago that Colonel Waring 
entered in the fullest sense upon his professional work as 
sanitary engineer. His most famous achievement was 

the difficult task of putting in the so-called “Waring sys¬ 
tem ” of drainage for the city of Memphis. The other 
cities whose sewers, water supply, or general sanitary 







H 


COL. GEORGE E. WARING , JR. 


improvement he was concerned with from time to time 
would make a long list if fully enumeiated. Colonel 
Waring's qualifications for his work were exceptional in 
their variety. It would be hard to name any other man 
of his day who combined so much practical experience 
with scientific knowledge. And he possessed perhaps 
greater ability as an administrator than as an engineer. 

APPOINTED STREET COMMISSIONER TO CLEAN NEW YORK 

The more popular kind of reputation did not come to 
Colonel Waring until his appointment in 1895 by Mayor 
Strong as head of the street-cleaning department of New 
York. To many people it seemed beneath the dignity 
of so eminent an engineer as Colonel Waring to take a 
broom in his hand--so to speak— and proceed to sweep 
up the accumulated filth of a long series of Tammany 
administrations. But, fortunately, Colonel Waring had 
imagination enough to conceive of his work in the largest 
possible way. Mayor Strong promised that there should 
be no political interference in the department and that 
Colonel Waring should have an opportunity to show 
that New York could be made as clean as the best 
foreign cities. From its rank as the worst street clean¬ 
ing department of all the great towns of the civilized 
world, Colonel Waring soon lifted the New York depart¬ 
ment to a place among the best—possibly even to the 
very head of the list. It was not merely a momentary 
personal triumph, either; but one of those thoroughgoing 
reforms that has left the cleansing department upon a 
permanently efficient basis. Every phase of the problem 
how to collect, remove and finaly dispose of the waste 
material of a great city was thoroughly studied by Colonel 
Waring, and the results of his study were rapidly em¬ 
bodied in the working methods of his department. 

The transforming effect upon the appearance, com¬ 
fort and health of the city was almost magical. His con¬ 
crete setting-forth of the superior value of non-political, 





__ COL. GEORGE E. WARING , JR. 15 

business-like administration was more effective as a prac¬ 
tical object-lesson, than all the speeches and arguments 
that the reformers could have launched in fifty years. 
When Tammany came into power again there was a 
strong sentiment among Tammany men themselves in 
favor of the retention of Colonel Waring at the head of 
the street cleaning department. But although the posC 
tion was given to a Tammany man, the civil service 
reform principle was not wholly ignored, for the new 
appointee had been one of Colonel Waring’s chief assis¬ 
tants and was publicly pledged to carry on Colonel 
Waring’s system to the best of his ability. 

A CLEAN METROPOLIS 

The new era of a realy clean metropolis that Colonel 
Waring has brought ab< 5 ut has cost some extra money. 
But the addition to the yearly appropriation for street 
cleaning is a trifling thing when one weighs it against 
the difference between failure and success. Proper 
cleansing has saved the city thousands of lives every year 
and scores of thousands of cases of illness. The mone¬ 
tary value of freedom from dust and mud in a closely 
crowded city would run into very high figures if justly 
estimated. What Colonel Waring was able to do in 
New York became the most conspicuous topic of munici¬ 
pal discussion throughout the whole country. There 
are a hundred cities and towns of importance that are to¬ 
day cleaning their streets more efficiently than they would 
otherwise be doing, by reason of the example that Colonel 
Waring set in the metropolis. 

The New York department of street cleaning has a 
broad scope, and Colonel Waring had authority over the 
whole question of the removal and disposal of gar¬ 
bage and domestic waste, as well as that of streets and 
public places. His conduct of the department was 
always from the standpoint of the Board of Health, rather 
than that of the fiscal authorities. He saw clearly that a 







i 6 COL. GEORGE R WARING, JR. __ 

city can never afford to spend money grudgingly when 
the result of such expenditure is shown in a decided re¬ 
duction of the rate of sickness and death. The most dis¬ 
astrously expensive thing for any community is a high 
death- rate, with recurring visitations of epidemics of pre¬ 
ventable disease, such as typhoid fever, diphtheria, chol¬ 
era, yellow-fever, and so on. The sum total of Colonel 
Waring’s efforts for the improved administration of New 
York City bore directly upon these questions of public 
health. 


CHERISH THE LESSONS OF HIS CAREER 

He had completed his sixty-fifth year and was in the 
fullest possession of his powers and resources. The ex¬ 
perience of forty years went into his brief October work 
in Cuba. The American people will not forget his pub¬ 
lic services and will cherish the lessons of his career. 
There should be a monument to his memory in the tene¬ 
ment district of New York, where he was known so 
well and where thousands of children, as volunteer mem¬ 
bers of his Auxiliary Street Cleaning Society, held him in 
enthusiastic regard. In Havana, also, when in due time 
the great trunk sewers are constructed along the line of his 
suggestions, there should be placed a tablet or some other 
memorial of his fatal, but fruitful, visit of October, 1898. 



Boys in Col, Waring’s White Wings’ Parade. 












COLONEL WARING’S PLAN TO 
CLEAN HAVANA 


AND THUS FOR THE FUTURE 

TO SAVE HER FROM THE RAVAGES OF 

FILTH DISEASES 

AND 

THE UNITED STATES from YELLOW-FEVER 


SYNOPSIS OF THE REPORT 

THAT COST THE LIFE OF 

THE GREATEST APOSTLE OF CLEANLINESS 

AND ENEMY OF DISEASE 


'VA/'ASHINGTON, Jan. 8,1899.—The War Department, 
Division of Customs and Insular Affairs, made pub¬ 
lic to-day a synopsis of the late Col. George E. Waring’s 
report of his visit to Havana under the special instructions 
of the War Department, given him early last autumn, to 
thoroughly inspect the sanitary condition of the city 
and to make such recommendations for the future im¬ 
provement of the town as might be suggested by said 
inspection. 

Colonel Waring says he found the street cleaning 
department without adequate organization or funds, the 
markets offensive and dangerously filthy, with the excep¬ 
tion of two, the Tacon and Colon markets. He also 
found the machinery used for sweeping the streets 
ineffective, the garbage thrown into the streets and in 
entire disregard of the ordinance requiring garbage set 
out in proper receptacles. The work of the contractor 
was all done in the latter part of the night, and abso¬ 
lutely in the dark, and any obscure sidewalk was freely 
used for purposes of defecation, and no attempt seemed 
to have been made to cover or remove the rubbish. 

17 



18 COL. GEORGE E. WARING , JR. 


FOUL POOLS AND DEAD ANIMALS IN THE STREETS 

Foul pools were found in the streets into which rub¬ 
bish and filth had been deposited, which the contractor 
was not required to clean, and which filth was turned 
over to the buzzards. Some of the streets in the com¬ 
pact part of the city are paved with large stone blocks, 
others with Belgian blocks, and the remainder are un¬ 
paved. These streets are filled with dirty holes, which 
are filled up with house garbage. There are practically 
no sewers. In many cases households connect their 
private vaults with loose brick or stone drains just under 
the pavement along their frontage. These serve to allow 
the liquid filth to leach out into the ground close to the 
surface, enabling the housholder to get out of much less 
hiring of night scavengers to bail out and carry away its 
accumulations, than would otherwise be necessary. 

Slaughtering pens, while superficially clean, are bru¬ 
tally disgusting while the work is going on. Blood and 
offal are washed by copious floodings from the water 
supply into an adjoining creek and harbor reeking with 
putrid filth. There is no systematic disposal of garbage 
and sweepings. It is deposited on the surface in and 
near the town, where the buzzards feast upon it to their 
full satisfaction. Dead dogs, cats and chickens are left 
in the streets until the buzzards pick them to the skele¬ 
ton. And all this is done under an intense sun. 

SHAMEFUL DOMESTIC CONDITIONS 

Bad as these conditions are, they are not comparable 
with the disgusting conditions of the domestic life. 
There are fewer than 20,000 houses in the city. Six¬ 
teen thousand are of one story, 200 are of three stories, 
and a very few are of four stories and none higher. At 
least twelve out of every thirteen of the inhabitants live 
in one story houses, the total population being over 
200 , 000 . 









19 


THE REPORT 


The average population of the houses is over ten. 
In all the compactly built parts of the city the entire lot 
is covered with the house, there being one or two courts 
included in the building. In the better class of houses 
the entrance hall is quite commonly the standing room of 
the carriage. It opens into the parlor at its side and into 
the reception room at its rear. Beyond this is a court, 
then the dining room, then a smaller court, the kitchen, 
stable, and private vault, practically all in one. Sleeping 
rooms are in the rear of the parlor and at the side of the 
court dining room. The conspicuous feature of every 
house is the private vault, and sometimes a second vault 
for kitchen wastes. These vaults occupy a space prac¬ 
tically under and almost in the kitchen. It is rare indeed 
that these vaults have a ventilating pipe, so that they 
belch forth nauseating odors throughout the house, and 
which pervade the streets. 

DEADLY MARSHES 

Lest the conditions above set forth should fail to do 
their appointed work of destruction, the broad marshes 
at the southerly edge of the harbor are at hand to furnish 
their quota of malaria. Into these marshes flow a num¬ 
ber of water courses, which bear upon their surface 
the offscourings of a very poor quarter of the town, 
the effluent of the slaughtering pens and of other foul 
establishments, while a large portion of the flat is used as 
a dumping ground for garbage. 

WATER SUPPLY EXCELLENT 

The water supply of Havana, says Colonel Waring, 
is of the purest and most excellent character. This, with 
the winds of the gulf, save the city from being absolutely 
and unqualifiedly bad. 

AWFUL PLAGUE SPOT 

The city is a veritable plague spot. Its own people, 
largely immune though they are to yellow fever, which 






20 


COL. GEO RGE E. WA RING , JR. _ 

has prevailed in Havana without interruption for 163 years, 
fall constant victims under the pernicious malaria and de¬ 
pressing influences to which they are always subjected. 

WORSE THAN WAR 

It needs only the immigration of fresh material, 
which the enterprise of an American population is sure to 
bring in, to create a sacrifice such as has not yet been 
known. Commerce, says Colonel Waring, will carry 
the terror and the terrible scourge of yellow-fever to our 
shores, until we rise again in a war of humanity, and at 
all costs wipe out an enemy with which no military 
valor can cope. In conclusion, Colonel Waring says: 

“ Would it not be wise to accept at once the fact 
that we are confronted with a danger compared with 
which war is insignificant, and proceed to meet it and 
conquer it while we may? We cannotafford to wait until 
we have fed it and strengthened it with the lives of our 
people. The necessary reforms will call for costly works 
even now. But every month’s delay will make them 
more costly and more imperative. We can set about 
these reforms now calmly and judiciously. Later, under 
the impulse of panic, we should work at far greater 
disadvantage. 

THE REMEDY 

Colonel Waring suggests the following improve¬ 
ments as absolutely essential to make Havana a healthy 
city : 

First—Organize immediately a Department of Public 
Cleaning, under the full control of a single commissioner 
experienced in the conduct of such work, and with au¬ 
thority to do all that occasion may require. This depart¬ 
ment, Colonel Waring urges, should have for its chief 
function the maintaining of a constant state of cleanli¬ 
ness in all streets and public places, in all public buildings 
and places of public resort, and in all about the public 










THE REPORT 


2 I 

markets and abattoirs. It should also control the disposal 
of all wastes, except sewerage, by cremation and 
otherwise. 

Second—Construct a system of sewers to receive the 
liquid wastes of all houses of the main city as far as 
Belascoain. These sewers should serve separately the 
different districts into which the various slopes divide 
themselves, and each should discharge directly into the 
gulf or into the harbor as the case may be. Before such 
discharge the effluent should be effectively clarified by 
one of the various well-known methods, so that it 
would carry only its dissolved impurities. The amount 
of sea water flowing into and out of the harbor at each 
tide is about three thousand times that of the day’s dis¬ 
charge of the clarified sewerage of the harbor slope of the 
city, so that the dilution will be immediate and more 
than complete. 

Third—Fill up all the private and kitchen waste vaults, 
and supply every house with an adequate water closet 
connected with the public sewerage system. The clos¬ 
ets so furnished should be only what is adequate and 
necessary for the purpose now served by the vaults. 
Anything beyond this to be put in by the householder 
under proper supervision at his own cost. 

Fourth—Pave or repave all the streets in the best 
manner with asphalt. 

Fifth—Provide a completely appointed abattoir for 
large and small animals, adequate for all the needs of the 
population. 

Sixth—Provide a suitable and sufficient incinerating 
furnace for the complete and inoffensive destruction of 
garbage and other refuse, including street sweepings; 
also of all dead animals, including horses and oxen. 

Seventh—Reclaim all the marshes, at least those 
between the Cafzada de Vivesand Regia, about 500 acres, 
which will involve the care of the drainage from about 
650 acres. This reclamation to be made after the 











22 


COL. GEORGE E. WARING , JR. 


“ Polder” method of Holland by diking out the harbor 
and the water courses and moving the water by pumping. 

Eighth—Establish an electric power plant sufficient 
for this pumping, for pumping sewerage where neces¬ 
sary and for propelling the machinery of the abattoir— 
say, 300 horse power in all. 

COST OF REMEDY $10,000,000. 

Colonel Waring says that it is not possible, from the 
data now available, to estimate the cost of all the work 
indicated above more nearly than to say that it will not 
exceed $10,000,000. 

Havana’s filth cost the Mississippi valley in one 

YEAR $100,000,000. AND 13,911 LIVES 

li has been estimated that single epidemics introduced 
into the United States from Havana have cost in the Mis¬ 
sissippi Valley alone, $100,000,000. in loss to industries 
and commerce, aside from the loss of life, amounting in 
1878 and 1879 to 13,911, in addition to the enormous cost 
of the sickness of those who recovered. Colonel Waring 
says that, in his judgment, the complete execution of the 
work above indicated would completely eradicate yellow 
fever from Havana for all time, would relieve it from the 
malaria which is now so fatal, and would reduce its nor¬ 
mal death rate from its present high figure (not far from 
50 per 1,000) to about 20 per 1,000. He says if these 
improvements are to be made there must be no delay and 
no half-way measures. All that is indicated must be done 
in the best and most complete manner, and it must all be 
done before June 1,1899. If it is not all done, there is 
every reason to fear that yellow-fever will be rife in Ha¬ 
vana next season, because of the large number of unpro¬ 
tected persons who would go there, trusting to the effi¬ 
ciency of the partial carrying out of the work. The 
mortality of the city of Havana for the week ending October 
6, 1898, was 336, an annual rate 139.36 per 1,000. 






COLONEL WARING AS MAJOR OF THE GARIBALDI HUSSARS 


LIFE AND DEATH 

OF 

COLONEL WARING 

As told by The Sun on the day of his death 
October 29th, 1898 

^JEORGE E. WARING was born in Poundridge, New 
York, on July 4, 1833, and was educated at College 
Hill, Poughkeepsie. He studied engineering and also 
took a special course with the late Prof. James J. Mapes 
in agricultural chemistry. He displayed a special apti¬ 
tude for this science. When but twenty-one years old 
he made a lecture tour through Vermont and Maine, 
talking upon agricultural topics. Shortly afterward 

23 














24 


COL. GEORGE E. WAR LEG, JR. ' 


Horace Greely became interested in his work and em¬ 
ployed him to manage his farm at Chappaqua, N. Y. 
This was in 1855. Two years later he was appointed 
agricultural and drainage engineer of Central Park. He 
designed the present system of drainage of the Park\and 
incidentally planted the two rows of noble elms on the 
Mall. /He' was in this office when the Civil war broke out. 
He dropped his work immediately to go to the frontX 
He went out as Major of the Garibaldi Hussars. After 
three months’ service he was transferred to the Depart¬ 
ment of the Southwest. He was Major of cavalry under 
Gen. John C. Fremont, and raised six companies of ca¬ 
valry in St. Louis, which were called the Fremont Hus¬ 
sars. These afterward formed with the Benton Hussars, 
the 4th Missoury Cavalry. Major Waring was made a 
Colonel in recognition of these services, and served in 
that capacity during the remainder of the war. 

/w e became manager of the Odgen Farm in 1867 and 
took up his residence in Newport, R. 1 . This farm was 
a sort of school for scientific farming. Col. Waring con¬ 
tinued his studies in engineering, developing them along 
the line of sewerage systems. X 

It seems the irony fate that Col. Waring should have 
died of the very disease the successful combating of 
which gave him national fame. When the terrible epi¬ 
demic of yellow fever broke out in Memphis in 1878, Col. 
Waring was summoned to the city, and revolutionized 
the sewerage system of the placeX Because of the pecu¬ 
liar topography of the city, he found his task a difficult 
one. / 4 le introduced there the system by which theTiouse 
drainage and the surface drainage were disposed of sepa¬ 
rately. It was called the Waring system, and has proved 
efficacious that Memphis has been free of yellow fever 
ever since, and was transformed from one of the un- 
healthiest cities in the country to a very healthy city. 
By this work he became widely known. His system was 
adopted in many American and some European cities.X 





25 


_ COL. GEOR GE E. WARING , JR. 

The towns of Brunswick, Ga., and Birmingham, 
Ala. recently adopted his system of sewerage. 

He was appointed special agent of the tenth census 
in charge of the social statistics of cities. He afterward 
became a member of the National Health Board. 

Col. Waring again came into prominence when 
Mayor Strong appointed him Street Cleaning Commis- 
sioner. He began his work in this city^on January 15, 1895. 
From the very beginning he assumed an aggressive con¬ 
duct of his department.\ 

The Colonel conducted the department in a strictly 
non-partisan manner, and he conducted it well. His 
work is well known to every citizen of New York. The 
streets were what they never had been before—clean. 
Under his predecessors it had been the custom to clean a 
few leading thoroughfares, where a good showing was 
made, and to leave the rest of the streets almost untouched. 
Col. Waring cleaned all the streets. One of his first acts 
was to uniform his men in white duck suits, to thorough¬ 
ly organize them and establish among them a certain es¬ 
prit de corps. Every year the street cleaners paraded , 
and a fine showing they made. Col. Waring made a 
brisk crusade against the truckmen who were accustomed 
to store their wagons in the street, thereby blocking the 
thoroughfares and increasing the difficulty of cleaning 
them. The truckmen raised a great howl about this 
crusade, but the Commissioner went right ahead and rid 
the city of the nuisance. He organized children’s clubs, 
the purpose of which was to aid in promoting the clean¬ 
liness and health of the city. These children reported 
such cases as came under their observation of persons 
throwing rubbish in the streets and did a good work. 
When Mayor Van Wyck was elected the Colonel, in spite 
of his splendid record, had to make way for a Tammany 
man who had no particular qualifications for the post. 

After leaving the Commissionership he devoted his 
time to lecturing and writing. He was the author of 








COL. GEORGE E. WARING , JR. 


«• Whip, Spur and Saddle/’ a volume of horse stories; 
“A Farmer’s Vacation,” “The Bride of the Rhine,” 
“ The Tyrol,” and “The Skirt of the Alps.” He was a 
member of the Century and Authors’ clubs. 

The Citizen's State party this year nominated him for 
State Engineer and Surveyor. . ; , 



Colonel Waring was appointed on October 2, . the 


head of the United States Commission to select camp 
sites in Cuba and to arrange for sanitary improvements 
there. He sailed for Cuba soon afterward and made 
extensive sanitary investigations in the island. He paid 
particular attention to Havana, and it was to report on 
the results of his observations that he returned to this 
country./ He arrived in this city from Havana on the 
Ward Liner Yucatan on last Tuesday. He was passed at 
Quarantine, and at once went to his horned 

On that very afternoon he complained of feeling ill 
and went to bed. He thought he was suffering from 
Cuban or malarial fever, but Dr. Stimson, who was 
summoned, detected symptoms of yellow-fever. He 
notified the Health Board on Thursday. Two physicians 
went to the Colonel’s home and diagnosed the case 
as yellow-fever. It was considered a mild attack, how¬ 
ever, and until last night the Colonel’s recovery was 
expected. So much better did he feel that he suggested 
taking a walk yesterday. 

When the physician told him that he was too weak, 
that he had yellow-fever, he would scarcely believe it. 
“ Well, I don’t care what disease I have,” he finally said, 
“ I’ll get well anyhow.” 


DEATH OF COLONEL WARING 



Col. George E. Waring, Jr., died this morning from 
yellow fever, the disease which he contracted in making 
a sanitary inspection of Cuba for the Government// His 
death took place at 7.35 o'clock at his home, the Ruther- 









27 


__ COL. GEORGE E. WA RING, JR. 

ford apartment house, at 175 Second Avenue. Death 
was rather unexpected. Dr. Daniel M. Stimson, who had 
been attending Col. Waring since he was stricken with the 
disease on Tuesday, reported last night that his patient 
was improving and that he would probably recover. At 
11 o’clock, however, Co'. Waring’s condition changed 
for the worse. Dr. Stimson was at once summoned by 
Mrs. Waring, who had been present with her husband 
since he was taken ill. He found that the Colonel was 
sinking rapidly. 

Between one and two o’clock Col. Waring was taken 
with the black vomit, peculiar to yellow fever, and his 
death then became a question of only a few hours. He 
continued to grow worse in the early morning, and at 
seven o’clock the following telegram was sent to 268 
West Eighty-fourth street, the home of George H. Davis, 
the father-in-law of John P. Yates, Col. Waring’s step¬ 
son ; “Be brave. The Colonel is sinking.” 

Three quarters of an hour later a message was sent 
to Mr. Davis announcing the Colonel’s death. Those 
present when Col. Waring died were Mrs. Waring, John 
P. Yates, Dr. Stimson, Dr. George E. Roberts of the 
Health Department, and the nurse. The health inspector 
who had been guarding the rooms of Col. Waring on the 
top floor of the apartment house at once notified the 
Bureau of Contagious Diseases, which in turn sent word 
of Colonel Warings’ death to the Board of Health. None 
of the officers were there at the time, so Dr. Blauvelt of 
the Bureau of Contagious Diseases sent a telephone mes¬ 
sage to the home of Colonel Murphy, the President of the 
Health Board. He told Colonel Murphy that Colonel 
Waring had had a relapse at 2.30 o’clock this morning. 
From that time on, Dr. Blauvelt told Colonel Murphy, 
there were no favorable symptoms, and the patient 
steadily sank until he died, at 7.35 o’clock. 

Colonel Murphy said this morning that he was very 
glad that he had not ordered Colonel Warings’ removal 









28 


COL. GEORGE E. WARING , JR. _ 

to North Brothers Island. The case, he said, had been 
carefully isolated, the patient having gone immediately 
to his apartments when he landed from the Yucatan on 
Tuesday and not having left them afterward. His home 
has been strictly quarantined, he said, and every precau¬ 
tion taken. 

He considered that there was absolutely no danger 
of the spread of the disease. As soon as President 
Murphy received the message he directed Dr. Blauvelt to 
have the body placed at once in a hermetically sealed 
coffin, so that by no possibility it might become a source 
for the spread of the disease. He directed also that all 
the bedding be thoroughly disinfected, and that every¬ 
thing in the infected apartments be subjected to a most 
thorough cleansing and fumigation. 

Dr. Stimson remained in Colonel Waring’s apart¬ 
ments until nearly io o’clock. When he left the building 
he made this statement: “About io o’clock last night I 
felt that Colonel Waring was growing w’orse. At 10.20 
o’clock I did not like his pulse, so 1 went home and 
returned with some clothes, prepared tostayfor the night. 
He gradually sank, without any marked change, until 
2 o’clock, when he was seized with the black vomit. 
From that time he grew weaker and weaker until he died, 
at 7. 35 o’clock. There were present at the death-bed 
myself and Miss Gilfillas, a nurse from the Presbyterian 
Hospital. Mrs. Waring and Mr. Yates were in an 
adjoining room 

Soon after Dr. Stimson’s departure a conference was 
held between Dr. Doty, Health Officer of the Port, and 
Drs. Roberts and Blauvelt. They decided to remove the 
body to Swinburn Island and there cremate it, that the 
last chance of infection might be removed. 

This decision, moreover, was in line with Colonel 
Waring’s personal desires, for he had often expressed the 
wish that his body be cremated. By an ordinance of the 
Board of Health the body had to be removed within 






__ COL. GEORGE E. WAR ING , JR. 29 

twenty-four hours, and at 11.35 o’clock it was taken to 
the foot of East Sixteenth Street and placed on a Quaran¬ 
tine tug. By the rules of the same Board no funeral may 
be held. 

The body was cremated late this afternoon. 

President Murphy, after a conference with the other 
officers of the Board of Health, issued the following 
formal statement in regard to Colonel Waring’s death: 

“ Colonel Waring contracted the disease, no doubt, 
in Havana. It partially developed there and on his 
journey to New York, continued on his arrival here, and 
after a few days' rest of course medical science detected 
the dread disease. Every effort of which science is 
master, is and will be used by this Board to prevent the 
spread of the disease. Fear does more at times to cause 
disease and death than actual sickness. 

“The Board of Health will pledge itself, as it has 
ever since it has been in power, to excercise every effort 
that skilled talent can use to prevent the spread of this 
disease. On being notified this morning, immediately 
after the death of Colonel Waring, I instructed the Sani¬ 
tary Superintendent, Dr. C. F. Roberts, to have the 
remains encased in a metallic coffin as provided in the 
Sanitary Code of this Department, and to call his staff 
around him to destroy or fumigate every vestige of every¬ 
thing in Colonel Waring’s room, or in contact with his 
person or his attendants. The Board of Health will 
guarantee that the disease will not spread further than the 
death of Colonel Waring. 

George A. Davis said that the death of Colonel 
Waring, coming as it did, was particularly hard on his 
wife. At the time she had the yellow-fever in New 
Orleans she lost her entire immediate family from the 
same disease—her father, mother, brothers and sisters. 

Mayor Van Wyck heard of the death of Col. Waring 
when he arrived at his office this morning. He ordered 
the flag on the City Hall at half-mast immediately. 







30 


COL. GEORGE E. WARING, JR. 


LESSONS OF 


COLONEL WARING’S LIFE AND DEATH 


GLEANED FROM NEWSPAPERS 
BY THE EDITOR OF PUBLIC OPINION 


WARING OF MORE VALUE TO AMERICA THAN CUBA AND ALL 
IT CONTAINS — OUR CITIES ARE BLIND TO THEIR BEST INTERESTS 

NATION, New York 


OLONEL WARING proved himself, in one depart¬ 



ment of American life, very important for our heatlth 
and comfort; to be the leading, if not the only, expert in 
the country for whose advent we had vainly waited ever 
since New York became a city. Were our affairs con¬ 
ducted rationally, we should at once have seized on him 
for permanent service, at such a salary as we pay a rail¬ 
road president, for instance. We should never have let 
him go as long as he retained his faculties, if money 
could keep him. But we dismissed him, almost with 
contumely, at the end of three years. During his 
term of office he had the wretched salary of $6,000 
a year, and he quitted his office in debt; but we 
have joyfully spent $400,000,000 in killing Spaniards and 
destroying their property, on behalf of a people of whom 
we confessthat before we began killing we knew nothing, 
and whom when it was over, we acknowledge to be 
worthless. When Tammany turned him out, did reason 
hold much sway among us, would not a dozen American 
cities have begun to bid for his services ? All or nearly all 
American cities are in the condition in which New York 
was when he took charge of the streets. We do not 
suppose one of them ever thought of such a thing. The 
proposal to employ an expert for such a purpose would 
have seemed the thought of a wild visionary or millenar- 
ian. We may be sure that if “expansion” continues, 








_ COL. GEORGE E. WARING , JR. 31 

Waring will not be its last victim. We shall continue to 
send our best citizens, who would be invaluable to us at 
home, to solve problems for the benefit of the Tagalsand 
the Cubans which here in America we refuse to consider 
for a moment. If we knew the things which make tor 
our peace and prosperity, we should regard the life of a 
man like Waring as of more value to the American people 
than the whole Island of Cuba and all that it contains. 


WARING’s LIFE WORTH 6000 LIVES A YEAR TO NEW YORK 
AND ARMIES TO OUR NATION AND THE REST OF THE WORLD 

PRESS, New York 

Cuba has cost this country much in life, but in the 
long catalogue of expenditures there is no other single 
item, equal in magnitude to that discharged in the death 
of Colonel George E. Waring, Jr. He perished as dis¬ 
tinctly in the cause of the regeneration of the Island as 
any one of his old war comrades who in this new war 
led their men up the slopes about the town of Santiago. 
He fell in a personal reconnoissance, under the direction 
of his government, of the the enemies he had met and 
vanquished on many fields—the enemies of neglect that 
breeds filth, of filth that breeds pestilence. It is, however, 
when v/e come to count the value of this man’s life in 
the lives that he has saved that the point of loss comes 
home most keenly. It is'not only that the death rate of 
New York sank by some 0,000 annually when he de¬ 
monstrated that New York could be kept clean, nor that 
the city of Memphis has been free of yellow-fever for 
the twenty years since he drained it. The lives that 
Waring saved ere he lost his own in the same work of 
rescue are to be told in far greater hosts than these. For 
he was peculiarly the apostle of cleanliness, the scourge 
of dirt. No part of his influence dies with him. Nay, 
rather, the more earnestly by reason of his almost tragic 
taking off will the work in which he labored go on. His 










32 


COL. GEORGE E. WARING , JR. _ 

death at the hands of the king of dirt diseases gives a 
mournful but most impressive emphasis to the lesson 
which he taught so earnestly of the kinship of dirt and 
disease. 

HE PROVED THAT A REFORMER MAY BE PRACTICAL 
AND REACH RESULTS 
CITY AND STATE, Philadelphia 

His most illustrious work was a demonstration of 
the fact that the streets of New York city could be cleaned, 
and kept clean, so long as a man of ability and integrity was 
maintained at the head of the street cleaning department 
Colonel Waring forced even Tammany to learn a lesson 
from him. His recent career is a refutation of the charge 
that the reformer is impracticable and can not reach results. 
In addition to these great and conspicuous services we 
are grateful to Colonel Waring for his contribution to the 
cause of international arbitration made last June at the ar¬ 
bitration conference held at Lake Mohonk. At that 
meeting he presided most acceptably and with all of a 
soldier's “ do-this-and-he-doeth-it ” manner. We shall 
never forget his frank, unflinching look as, to the surprise 
of every one, he alluded to war as “legalized murder.” 
Of course, when Colonel Waring so spoke we presume 
he did not mean to be taken quite literally, but to express 
the sense of horror which his knowledge of war gave 
him—he, a soldier, who knew its meaning—at its bru¬ 
tal sacrifices of human life. Colonel Waring met his 
death by the touch of that dread disease from which he 
saved so many others and from which he hoped to help 
release Cuba. All workers for honest government, for 
able, rational administration of public affairs, for freedom 
from contagious and deadly diseases, and for the sacred 
cause of international peace, will be grateful for the noble 
life of George E. Waring, Jr., and, as they read its 
story, and reflect upon its lessons, many will resolve to 
show their gratitude by renewed faithfulness and energy 







33 


COL. GEORGE E. WARING , JR. 
for the causes in which he was so distinguished a leader. 

NO HEROISM GREATER THAN THAT OF FIGHTING FILTH 

INQUIRER, Philadelphia 

The loss to the United States of the services of this 
man is grave. There was probably no better sanitary 
engineer in this country. His vast experience in New 
York, his accurate knowledge of the problems to be met 
in Cuba and the best and easiest solutions for them, and 
his lucid intellect in planning, makes the vacancy caused by 
death a difficult one to fill. Then, also, there is the time 
lost, for the man who will take his place must go over 
the same ground and study the same problems. Much 
of Colonel Waring’s information has been reduced to 
writing, but he carried in his brain what was more valu¬ 
able than any writen report could be. We repeat that 
no man met death more heroically or more patriotically 
than did Colonel Waring. The glory that is lavished on 
those who are shot in battle, is worthily placed, but the 
hero who went to Cuba to tight yellow-fever in order to 
save the lives of an army of men is justly worthy of every 
tribute a grateful people can bestow. 

HE DEMONSTRATED THAT OUR CITIES COULD BE CLEANED 

AND KEPT CLEAN 
RECORD, Chicago 

Colonel Waring achieved distinction throughout the 
country as the man who cleaned the streets of New York 
city and kept them in first-class condition during the time 
that he was in office. He rendered a service to the entire 
nation by demonstrating that the streets of American 
cities can be cleaned and kept clean just as soon as the 
people insist on the adoption of the methods that he 
used with so great success in New York. All that is 
necessary, is to drive the spoilsmen out and intrust the 
work to men selected solely with regard to their ability 
for the duties to be performed. 





COL. GEORGE E. WARING , JR. 


A PUBLIC OFFICIAL MAY BE ABSOLUTELY DEVOTED TO DUTY 
JOURNAL OF COMMERCE, New York 

If the work of the United States in Cuba is to eman¬ 
cipate the Island not only from oppressive government 
but from preventable disease—and such seems to be its 
mission—Colonel Waring has the same claim upon Cu¬ 
ban gratitude as a general in command of troops. He 
died in an effort to deliver Cuba and our southern states 
from the scourge of yellow-fever, and to that scourge it 
was his fate to fall a victim. A man of personal charm, 
a public official absolutely and unreservedly devoted to 
his duties, and an engineer of high attainments, his loss 
is an occasion for widespread and deep regret. 

HE TAUGHT THE PEOPLE A LESSON OF FIRST IMPORTANCE — 
THE VALUE OF BUSINESS PRINCIPLES IN PUBLIC AFFAIRS 

DISPATCH, Pittsburg, Pa. 

Colonel Waring did many things during his long life, 
and did them well, but his enduring fame attaches to his 
work in behalf of municipal cleanliness. In that field he 
blazed paths for others to follow, and did a service to man¬ 
kind upon which too high an estimate cannot be placed. 
In connection with that work he taught the people a po¬ 
litical lesson of the first importance—the value of business 
principles and the absence of political influences in civic 
administration. His work will live after him. 

YELLOW JACK SAW IN HIM ITS MOST DANGEROUS ENEMY 

POST, Syracuse, N. Y. 

Yellow Jack saw in Colonel Waring its most danger¬ 
ous enemy and struck him down. Colonel Waring did 
not face the Mauser bullets of the Spaniards, but he is 
still a hero and perhaps a greater one than many of those 
who did. His loss is one of the losses to this country in 
the war with Spain. His life is his own eulogy. His 
works are his best monument. 









35 


COLONEL WANING'S PROPHECY 


NEW YORK, A. D., 1997—A PROPHECY. 


At a recent dinner of the Quill Club, Colonel George E. War¬ 
ing, Jr., was a^ked to say a few words about the conditions that 
were likely to exist in the city of New York in the next century. 

New York, Anno Domini, 1997! Think of the wonderful 
things a telescope that could peer into the future would reveal! 
A more fanciful subject, or one offering better play to the 
imagination, could hardly have been suggested. The New 
York Herald asked him to enlarge on the suggestions that oc¬ 
curred to him on that occasion, and he has done so in the 
article appended. 

It is a graphic and forceful picture that Colonel Waring 
draws that will appeal with directness to every New Yorker. 
Some of his prophecies at first blush may strike you as over¬ 
daring, but as you listen to him you will find that they very 
rapidly transfer themselves in your mind from the realm of 
the merely plausible to that of the probable. At all events, 
Colonel Waring’s facile though practical imagination has 
spanned the chasm of time between 1897 and 1997 with an ease 
that in itself will be sure to carry conviction to many a sceptic. 






NEW YORK, A. D., 1997 

A PROPHECY 

BY COLONEL GEORGE E. WARING, JR. 


If the population centering in New York increases dur¬ 
ing the next hundred years as rapidly as it has during the 
past fifty years, it will comprise, probably, twenty million 
souls. It would be futile, of course, to attempt to pre¬ 
dict, with even a probability of accuracy, what the char¬ 
acter and conditions of life of that community would be. 

Judging from the building progress of the past twenty 
years, Manhattan Island will be covered, aside from its 
great public buildings and their ornamental and roomy 
surroundings, and the parks, which are forever dedicated 
to the use of the people, with architectural monstrosities 
which the sky scrapers of the present day portend. It is 
not unlikely that the whole island will be largely aban¬ 
doned as a place of residence. Staten Island will be given 
over to shipping, ’longshoremen and unsavory industries. 
The shoal western side of the harbor below Jersey City 
will be filled with docks, warehouses and railroad ter¬ 
minals. The beautiful ridge on the west side of the Hud¬ 
son and all the northeastern portion of New Jersey, as 

well as the upper portion of Westchester County and the 
whole of Long Island, will become one vast residence re¬ 
gion, save for the frequent manufacturing centres which 
will be established in favorable localities. 

How -will tlie people live? 

How the people will live it is impossible even to guess, 
but it is not likely that they will live in the closely huddled 



A. D., 1997—A PROPHECY 


37 


habitations of the present day. The indications are these: 
1 he tenement house will be unknown, and no man, rich 
or poor, will live in a house of which every room does not 
open freely to the outer air. The present tendency to ag¬ 
gregation and conglomeration will yield to Heaven 
knows what method of free, easy and cheap transporta¬ 
tion. He would be a bold man who, recalling the short 
interval of time between the days of the ubiquitous om¬ 
nibus and the rapid and pleasant trolley car of to-day, 
would venture to predict what will be our means of urban 
travel. A quarter of a century ago no one would have 
believed that old and young, rich and poor, would be fly¬ 
ing about our streets and over our country roads on rub¬ 
ber tired bicycles. It would have been as absurd to pre¬ 
dict then what we are now so familiar with as to predict 
now that there will be some safe and universal method of 
aerial or subterranean mode of conveyance. 

Engineering problems—water supply, sewage. 

The problems of municipal engineering are no less dif¬ 
ficult to adjust, in view of the great possible changes of 
method and arrangement. For example, to supply a 
population of twenty millions with water, according to 
our present system and at our present rate, would be 
practically impossible. Tt would involve the forcing of 
rivers of water from Lake Ontario, and the waste water 
of the great community would foul both shores of Long 
Island and the entire Hudson. The lower bay would be 
a cesspool. 

As a mere matter of fancy, I have for some time con¬ 
sidered the ultimate result of an experiment which I made 
on the wharf over the main outlet sewer at Newport in 
the Summer of 1894. Sewage was pumped up into filter 
tanks, which were supplied with abundant air (oxygen) 
to stimulate and facilitate the development of the bacteria 
by which the oxidation and nitrification of foul organic 
matter is effected. That system has now been applied in 





3 « 


A. £>., iqgi—A PROPHECY 


practice to filters which are purifying 100,000 gallons per 
day. Within the short space of four hours foul sewage is 
purified to the drinking water standard. I do not venture 
to predict, but I do say that it is possible that the devel¬ 
opment of this process will suffice for the purification of 
all the liquid wastes of all this vast population. At New¬ 
port the sewage was purified to the drinking water stand¬ 
ard-bright, sparkling, odorless and palatable. Not only 
did I drink it myself, but it was drunk without question by 
half a dozen of the officials of Providence, who came to 
visit the wciks. 

Is it entirely beyond the realm of possibility to suppose 
that the public authorities, at the end of the next century, 
will furnish to the people, not water, but compressed air? 
that the sewage flowing from every house will be purified 
in filters of the character indicated—aerated by air under 
pressure, and by the same pressure forced to reservoirs in 
the tops of the houses, from which it will flow to be used 
again? This is practically nature’s way of purifying foul 
water. It is sent back to us through the medium of rain, 
earth filtration and river feeding springs. 

So far as we can see, much, if not all of the work of 
lighting, heating and transportation will be performed by 
electricity under the great development it is to receive at 
the hands of men of genius like Nikola Tesla. One thing 
seems very sure—coal and wood will cease to be used for 
fuel, and the atmosphere of the city will be as free of 
smoke as the houses and streets will be of ashes and dust. 

No horses or other domestic animals. 

Domestic animals will cease to be domesticated within the 
limits of towns. Indeed, I believe that twenty years will 
not elapse before the horse will be unknown in New York, 
and that automobile carriages and trucks will entirely 
supplant the vehicles of to-day. Heavens! What a relief 
this will be to the Department of Street Cleaning. In fact, 
there seems to be no end to what one may imagine as to 








__ A. D. y 1997—A PROPHECY 39 

the material changes that are to take place in our modes 
of life. 

Thegreatestchanges will l»e in the people and government. 

But all of these changes, great though they will be, will 
be as nothing compared with the changes that are to 
come over the people themselves and over their govern¬ 
ment. As to the people who will make up the vast com¬ 
munity of New York of a century hence, I think we may 
be most hopeful. Ihere has never been, within the 
memory of any person living—if we except, perhaps, the 
devastations of the war—any period of five years that was 
not better than the five years preceding it. 

Pessimists. 

Calamity howlers and pessimists have said, from time 
immemorial, that the world was going to the demnition 
bow-wows, but the world has never failed to postpone to 
an indefinite time the realization of their fears and to 
march steadily on toward better things. In my judgment, 
our salvation from the impending disaster depends on 
two great facts: One is the constantly improving condi¬ 
tion of public education, and the other is the constantly 
increasing interest of the people themselves in whatever 
may affect their public and private welfare. 

Public Education. 

The public schools of New York are marvelous—not 
so much for the mere book instruction that they are giv¬ 
ing to the children of all classes of the people as for the 
influence that school life is exerting on the children’s 
character. It has been my good fortune to see a great 
deal of the public schools of this city, and I have never 
ceased to marvel at the good order, the good training, 
the cleanly appearance and the individual ambition ot 
children, even of the lowest class, brought in from the 
streets and subjected to the influence of competition in all 








40 


A. D., 1997—A PROPHEC Y 

matters appealing to their ambition. The value of the re¬ 
flex action on the character of parents and their pride in 
sending their children to school in tidy condition cannot 
be overestimated. 


Popular will supplant monarchical school government. 

The interest shown by the school children of all classes 
in the organization of the juvenile street cleaning leagues 
and in the civic organizations established by Mr. Wilson 
L. Gill, president of the Patriotic League, especially his 
‘‘School City”; the avidity with which they acquire in¬ 
formation as to the minor details of government; the idea 
that is beginning to prevail among them that govern¬ 
ment means something more than the policeman to be 
run away from—as when building bonfires in the street— 
and the interest that they show in everything affecting 
public welfare—these alone are enough to give one the 
most confident hope for the future. 

There are two other influences which are working most 
effectively throughout the whole community. One is the 
series of public free lectures given in the public schools, 
under the direction of Dr. Leipziger, where crowds of 
intelligent, earnest men and women drink 111 eagerly the 
information laid before them to their and our lasting 
good. The other is the formation of fellowship clubs and 
associations, largely under the direction of the University 
and College Settlements and kindred organizations. 
These are gatherings mainly of young men eager to im¬ 
prove their condition, and to secure for themselves and 
their neighbors the improvement that their united action 
can effect. 

The tendency toward the formation of these associa¬ 
tions is extending rapidly, and the indications are that 
within a very few years every little community—certainly 
every Assembly district—will have an organization prop¬ 
erly guided, but left free for such action as it may desire, 
looking to the bettering of local conditions and to the 







4 I 


__ A. D., 1997—A PROPHECY 

exertion of useful influences on those who have the direc¬ 
tion of municipal forces. 

People will do tlieir own thinking. 

Through these agencies we cannot fail soon to reach 
a condition where the people of all classes and in all parts 
of the city will begin to do their own thinking and to act 
together for the advancement of the best interests of all. 
It is hardly too much to hope that these organizations, 
rather than the boss-guided primary, will become the 
source of nominations for municipal offices. When the 
desire for such a result is generally realized, it will be 
backed by such a political power as must suffice to exter¬ 
minate “politics,” as we know it, from the control of the 
business of the city. 

Relief, especially in this respect, is not to be secured in 
a moment, but we may certainly say that the condition is 
most hopeful. 


Not afraid of Tammany. 

The town is now filled with apprehension as to what 
may happen if Tammany Hall returns to power, and the 
fear is far too general that this would mean a return to 
the worst conditions of the past. I have no such appre¬ 
hension. I have had occasion, during the past two or 
three years, to make a familiar acquaintance with many 
of the most active leaders of the Tammany organization, 
and I have made the important discovery that they are 

human beings; that, as a rule, they are actuated by the 
same aspirations that are felt by others. They seek suc¬ 
cess in life, and the acme of such success is to secure the 
approbation and the esteem of the people. 

WE SHALL ALWAYS HAVE AS GOOD A GOV¬ 
ERNMENT AS THE PEOPLE AT LARGE APPRE¬ 
CIATE. These Tammany gentlemen are not hankering 
after public obloquy and disgrace. The voice of the peo¬ 
ple is the controlling power with them. Some o( them 







42 


A. D., 19Q7—A PROPHECY 


make mistakes and some of them do wrong, but the 
worst man among them will hold his hand before he will 
knowingly shock public opinion. They still have a 
greedy hankering after “patronage,” and they will make 
mischief in satisfying it for some years yet, but this ten¬ 
dency will lessen as time goes on. 


Public opinion 


Public opinion is constantly growing more intelligent 
and more exacting, and it cannot fail to react on our 
rulers, of whatever party, in leading them to conform to 
such standards as the people may establish. In the pres¬ 
ent case the conditions seem very clear. The people have, 
learned what good government is, and they will not give 
it up for long under any administration. 


Long before the great city of the future shall have ap¬ 
proached the lines laid down above, ITS PEOPLE 
WILL BE A DIFFERENT PEOPLE FROM WHAT 
THEY NOW ARE, AND ITS RULERS WILL BE 
DIFFERENT RULERS. 










Headquarters, 230 West 13th Street, New York, 


Chartered Oct. 7, 1891, under the laws of Congress 


TO PROCLAIM THE NECESSITY FOR SYSTEMATIC INSTRUCTION 
IN CITIZENSHIP IN THE SCHOOLS AND OUT OF THEM; TO CUL¬ 
TIVATE THE KNOWLEDGE OF AMERICAN PRINCIPLES, LAWS, 
HISTORY AND PROGRESS, AND TO INSTIL AMERICAN IDEAS 
INTO THE MINDS AND HEARTS OF AMERICANS, NATIVE AND A- 
ADOPTED, OF BOTH SEXES AND ALL AGES, SECTS AND CONDITONS 

PURPOSE AND SCOPE 

1. By endeavoring to get systematic teaching of the principles 
and training in the right practices of citizenship introduced into all 
grades of the schools. 

2. By enlisting individual memberships and by founding local or¬ 
ganizations to forward the objects of the PATRIOTIC LEAGUE. 

3. By prescribing a simple but systematic three years’ course of 
readings to be published in a monthly magazine, free to each active 
member, and devoted to the principal interests of American citi¬ 
zens ; and to present this knowledge through the writings of men 
and women eminently qualified to discuss the subjects. 


CURRICULUM 

The plan of work requires a three years’ course of reading, 
divided into lessons for each month, in the following departments : 
* The Principles and Right Practices of Citizenship in reference to 
National, State, Municipal and Personal Relations. 
Sociology. 

Economics. 

Principles of Common Law. 

American History and Biography. 

Brief Lessons in General History, to show the relation of our 
Country to other times and the rest of the world. 














PATRIOTIC LEAGUE INFORMATION IN BRIEF 

-- 


THE FIRST OBJECT of the League is to induce public schools to teach c 
especially the little ones, the principles and practice of unselfish citizenshi. 

INST RUCTION in those things which are necessary to intelligent citizens 
eluding a three years’ course in History, Civil Government, Law, Eco 
and the Duties and Practices of Good Citizenship, requiring about ten it 
reading each day, is furnished free to all active members. 

AFTER EXAMINATION at the end of the three years’ course, Members wil 
uate and receive diplomas. 

CHAPTERS of the Patriotic League can be organized in connection with, and 

add to the value and interest of work carried on by religious, patriotic, educ;* 
tional and social societies and schools. CHAPTER meetings can be held in con* 
nection with other meetings. Weekly meetings are advised but not required. 

MEMBERSHIP, Active and Associate, in chapters or separately, is open to men, wom¬ 
en and children, who adopt the principles of the Leagui a pursue its teachings. 

ANNUAL FEE for Active Members is $1.50 ; in chapters of ten or more $1.00. Our 
Country is furnished free to Active Members. No fee for Associate Members. 


CONTRIBUTING MEMBERS constitute the Alpha Chapter and give funds for the 
extention of the League work. Life Members, give $100 or more; Promoters, 
$25, a year; Sustaining Members, $10; Reguler Members of the Alpha Chapter 
$ 5 - 


THE BADGE of the LEAGUE is a little blue enameled silver star of the size and 
design of this drawing. It is made in the form of a scarf or stick pin, of 
a lapel button and of a bangle to hang from a link, the price being 35 
cents for each form. The wearing of the badge helps to make public 
opinion and is a valuable service to our cause. Celluloid badge 5 cents. 

CHARTERS, though not necessary to the work, will be issued to chapters of 19 
members or less for $1.30 ; for each additional 10 or less, $1. 



SOCIAL and POLITICAL REFORM through SCHOOL GOVERNMENT—“ The 
Gill School City” is a democratic-republican form of school government devised 
by the Patriotic League to take the place of the ordinary monarchical form, so 
that Americans, while their characters and habits of life are being formed, may be 
trained to habitually perform the duties of cooperative and unselfish citizenship. 

BOOKS—“ Our Country Series ” of small books on citizenship which have appear¬ 
ed serially in Our Country are especially adapted for use of schools. They are 
neatly and substantially bound and make a valuable addition to one’s library. 

OUR COUNTRY is the monthly magazine of the League containing all its required 
readings. It is furnished free to all Active Members. Associate Members will 
have to depend upon Active Members for their literature The required readings 
are prepared for young people of eighteen or twenty years and older. Experience 
shows that quite young boys and girls can be interested in and understand write 
ings intended for adults. It should not be expected that the young will take up 
this work with enthusiasm, unless older persons lead, and conslantly encourage 
and assist them. In the hands of earnest and patriotic teachers the lessons have 
proved a decided success in primary schools, as well as among adults. 

SUBSCRIPTION PRICE for Our Country is $2.00 a year, but is furnished to 
Active Members FREE. 


SAMPLE COPIES will be mailed on receipt of ten cents in silver or two-cent stamps. 
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, application blanks, charters, etc., address the 
PATRIOTIC LEAGUE. Send at least enough 2-cent stamps to pay postage. 
ALL M AIL should Jbp Addressed: PATRIOTIC LEAGUE, P. O. Station O, N. Y. 












OCT 14 , i«yy 










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